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JfCessage from JMexico 




Extracts from an address delivered by 

S. G. INMAN 


At the Texas State Convention 



Published by the Christian Woman’s Board 
of Missions, Cbllege of Missions Building. 
Indianapolis, Indiana Price 5 cents each, 
40 cents per dozen September, 1912 






















"NO COMPRENDO" 

[Extract from an address delivered b}; S. C. 

Inman at the Texas State Convention.] 

I SAW a cartoon the other day that repre- 
^ sented beautiful Miss Liberty giving a 
lecture to a desperado, w^ho, as he flourished 
a revolver, seemed to be trying to make out 
who the young lady w^as. On the brim of 
his wide sombrero was written “Mexico,” 
and he was saying, "No comprendo." The 
disturbed conditions south of the Rio Grande 
are proving only too clearly that indeed he 
does not understand. The deep truths of 
democracy are yet beyond his ken. He has 
not learned how to accept defeat with grace, 
to discuss issues without personalities, to con¬ 
fide in his fellow man, to unite factions for 
the common good. He has not learned to 
go two miles with the man who compels him 
to go one; that the man who hears and does 
is the man whose house stands; that before 
the tower is built one must sit down and 
count the cost; that he who puts his hand 
to the plow must not look back; that only he 
who loses his life shall find it again. 

All this we must candidly admit. But 
whose fault is it that he does not know these 
things? His own? The Mexican learns 
when he has a chance. I want to show you 
that he has had no chance—that his “No 
comprendo,” far from being the flippant re- 


sponse of a don’t-care, the subject for the 
funny column of a newspaper, is really the 
wail of a neglected soul, rent with grief and 
passion, who finds no one to explain the 
deep mysteries of life. “Understandest what 
thou readest?” was the historic question 
asked the desert traveler. His reply, “How 
can I, save some man shall guide?” is never 
taken as a lack of ability, but only as a just 
appeal for help. 

The Mexican has had no man to guide. 
Education and self-expression have been de¬ 
nied him for the four hundred years since 
the white man first set foot upon his soil. Let 
us take a rapid glance at these years. The 
names of four men.—Cortez, Hidalgo, Jua¬ 
rez, Diaz—with the gaps filled in by po¬ 
litical oppression and revolution on the one 
hand, and the constant intrigues of the priests 
to keep the people in ignorance on the other 
—this makes up Mexico’s history. Cortez, 
who conquered the aborigines in 1 520, was 
one of the most astute and unprincipled ad¬ 
venturers the world has ever known. Ac¬ 
companying him were a band of priests. The 
natives were compelled to bow to the Span¬ 
ish king and the Pope at the same time. 
“Christianity, instead of fulfilling its mission 
of converting and sanctifying, was itself con¬ 
verted. Paganism was baptized. Christian¬ 
ity was paganized.” The people lived in 
practical slavery for three hundred years. On 
September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo raised 
the cry of revolt against this terrible oppres¬ 
sion. But his love for liberty was not ac- 

3 


companied by a genius for leadership, and 
soon he and his fellow leaders were captured 
and shot. Then followed a continuous rev¬ 
olution for fifty years, in which independence 
from Spain was gained, only to be lost in 
the strife between her own unprincipled 
leaders. 

Out of this carnage of blood and disor¬ 
der appeared one of the greatest men ever 
produced by the two Americas. Benito 
Juarez laid the ax at the root of the tree. 
He saw that his country could never have 
political liberty till it had religious liberty. 
He confiscated large amounts of church 
property, separated completely church and 
state, gave the nation her present magnifi¬ 
cent constitution, repelled the French inva¬ 
sion, and was about to establish a series of 
reforms and an educational system for which 
the people had waited all these eenturies 
when he was suddenly cut off by death. 
Fresh struggles for the presidential chair 
finally resulted in its occupancy by Porfirio 
Diaz, who retained it from 1876 till 1911, 
with the exception of four years. His strong 
hand forced peace and brought about mar¬ 
velous material progress. But free speech 
was still repressed, and while a few more 
people learned to read, they must still reply 
in a large measure to the question, “Under- 
standest thou what thou readest?” with the 
wail, “How can I, save some man guide?” 

Is it any wonder when the country was so 
suddenly changed from a despotism to a 
democracy by the Madero revolution, that it 


has been impossible to keep down disturb¬ 
ances? The change was needed, but it was 
made too suddenly. Just like Turkey, like 
Portugal, like China, a period of trial and 
stress must be passed through. History em¬ 
phasises this to us repeatedly. Think of the 
long, dark days of the reconstruction period 
after our own civil war. We began learn¬ 
ing our lessons in democracy in 1215, when 
King John granted the Magna Charta, and 
when Wickliff translated the Bible into the 
language of the common people. And yet, 
in this good year of our Lord 1912, it would 
seem that with our strikes and riots, with our 
problems of the trusts and child labor, with 
the open saloon and the trampling of our flag 
under foot in anarchistic demonstrations, that 
we ourselves still have a few serious prob¬ 
lems to settle. Let us quit thanking the Lord 
that we are not like this publican, at least 
long enough to inquire why? “Understand- 
est thou what thou readest?” “No compren- 
do.” “How can I, save some man guide 

•V ♦ » 

me? 

It is good to know that the disciples of 
Christ are doing something at least to show 
to Mexico that we believe we are our broth¬ 
er’s keeper, and to help him to understand 
what he reads. Most of you are familiar 
with the great work done by the Christian 
Institute and the large corps of evangelistic 
workers in Monterey. For the last ten years 
our m.ission has been as a light set upon a 
hill m that great city. And never was there 
such a splendid outlook for that work as 


there is at the present. I have been asked to 
tell you of another work, in which we are 
emphasizing especially the elevation of the 
community life, and the interpreting the two 
nations to each other. This work, under the 
name of the People’s Institute, is situated in 
the border city of Porfirio Diaz. It is housed 
in a beautiful little building, recently erected 
by the generosity, largely, of Texas Disci¬ 
ples. Among the various methods of work 
are lectures on moral and social themes, night 
classes in fourteen different courses, a read¬ 
ing-room, library in Spanish and a debating 
society. 

What we call conferencias morales have 
been of intense interest. They are really a 
preaching service. A theme, such as 
“Friendship,” “Happiness,” “The Dignity 
of Work,” “The Need of Tolerance,” is 
announced, and the leading men of the city 
are invited to take part in the discussion. 
After the director has opened the discussion, 
others are called upon to express their opin¬ 
ions. All are encouraged to say exactly 
what they think. At the conclusion the di¬ 
rector sums up the discussion, and urges the 
teachings of the Man of Galilee on the ques¬ 
tion. These meetings are largely made up 
of men who would not think of going to a 
Protestant preaching service, but who are 
willing thus to study the same problems, pre¬ 
sented in a different form. Our debating so¬ 
ciety acts largely in the same way. Moral 
questions are discussed in the frankest way, 
and sledge-hammer blows are hit against the 


G 


national and personal vices, before large 
companies of people, where a regular ser¬ 
mon would not reach a fifth of the people. 

At the close of the Madero revolution, 
when the people suddenly discovered they 
were to elect their own officials, they under¬ 
stood not what they read. The way to or¬ 
ganize a political party and carry on an elec¬ 
tion campaign was entirely foreign to their 
understanding. We considered it a privi¬ 
lege, when they sought our help, to give it 
to them. In fact, we loaned them our audi¬ 
torium for their meetings, and it was there 
the reform mayor, that has done so much for 
the city, was nominated. A prominent citi¬ 
zen recently declared that there was not a 
man who had been prominent in the new po¬ 
litical activities of the city who had not got¬ 
ten his training in the debating society and 
night classes of the institute. 

After what we have said of the prejudice 
of the two nations, we would hardly expect 
to see the Mexicans coming together to cele¬ 
brate the Fourth of July. Yet that is what 
happened at our institute, and a more en¬ 
thusiastic celebration you never saw—all m 
Spanish, except the reading of the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence and the singing of the 
national hymn—but this by the Mexicans. 
The new institute is, in fact, the meeting 
place of several nations. Not long ago Bra¬ 
zil sent a special representative to Mexico and 
the United States to study the cultivation of 
cotton. 1 he gentleman happened to get to 
the City of Mexico at the wrong time, failed 

7 


to get the data he sought, and was leaving 
the country, with not a very good impression. 
He missed connection of trains in Diaz, we 
met him, and, finding also Senor Dominguez, 
the Burbank of Mexico, who is one of our 
consulting committee, and often gives con¬ 
ferences at the institute, we arranged a joint 
conference at the institute. Senor Domin¬ 
guez gave the gentleman the information he 
was seeking, and he went away with another 
idea of Mexico, and grateful impressions of 
our work and Protestant Christianity, with 
which he was unfamiliar before. 

When this work was first opened, the peo¬ 
ple were very suspicious of it. It was diffi¬ 
cult to get them to realize even that entrance 
to the reading-room was free, and in no way 
committed them to our religious convictions. 
The parish priest waged an incessant war, 
and for a long time it kept many away, espe¬ 
cially women. But our work is so recog¬ 
nized by all now that we receive 1 00 pesos 
monthly from the state government, and al¬ 
ways entertain the government officials and 
other prominent visitors to the city. Not long 
ago the bank presented the Institute with a 
note of $800, and we had not a dollar with 
which to pay it. A campaign of three days, 
in the time when there was most talk about 
intervention and the business outlook was 
most dark, the money was raised among the 
representative people of the city, but four of 
the men approached refusing to contribute. 

On the 16th of September, 1911, when 
a mob raged up the principal street, stoning 

8 


the houses of foreigners, they passed the in¬ 
stitute without any demonstration whatever 
and, returning to the monument in front of 
our property, listened to incendiary speeches, 
without even reference to the foreigners and 
Protestants who conducted the People’s In¬ 
stitute. The governor of the state, who came 
to the city the next day, said it was one of 
the most splendid tributes he ever saw paid to 
a work of like character. At a celebration 
of the reform laws, a national holiday, all 
of the orators of the occasion were People’s 
Institute men, and the night meeting, con¬ 
trary to all custom, was held at the institute 
building, with the mayor presiding. He said 
the next morning in commenting on the mat¬ 
ter: We are only beginning to realize the 

good you are doing for our city. I am go¬ 
ing to work to see that you have a tenfold 
increase in your work which is doing so much 
for this community. Such words of ap¬ 
proval confirm the wisdom of the policy pur¬ 
sued at the People’s Institute. 

On February 22, Washington’s birthday, 
the political situation was dark indeed. It 
looked as if the whole country had turned 
against the Madero government. We called 
a meeting at the institute, to which we invited 
all the government officials and prominent 
citizens, and read a part of the farewell ad¬ 
dress of Washington, which we had trans¬ 
lated for the occasion, and which seemed to 
have been written especially to advise the 
Mexicans in their national crisis. The neces¬ 
sity of standing by the constituted govern- 


merit, the cost of Ignoring authority, the nec¬ 
essity of allowing time for reforms to be car¬ 
ried out, were emphasized. A committee 
was organized to conduct conferences in the 
theater on the same subject. In two weeks 
such meetings were being held all over the 
republic, and the government was saved, at 
least temporarily. Of course, that meeting 
did not do it all, but it had its influence, no 
doubt. 

Considering the close proximity of Mex¬ 
ico to our own country, it is difficult indeed 
to realize why we have done so little to an¬ 
swer her appeal for light and guidance. It 
is certainly not because we have not come in 
contact with her needs. As surprising as our 
criminal neglect of her spiritual development 
is our wonderful interest in her material 
growth. The people of the United States 
have $1,000,000,000 invested in the mines, 
railroads, lands and industries of Mexico. 
One thousand million dollars! And how 
much have we invested in schools and 
churches? It will hardly reach one million 
dollars. Only one one-thousandth part of 
the total investment! Not long ago a repre¬ 
sentative of the Guggenheim Interests in the 
republic told me that there were one million 
Mexicans dependent upon their plants and 
allied ones for a living. And how many 
ministers of the Gospel, both foreign and 
native, are there employed by all the Home 
and Foreign Missionary Societies of the 
whole Protestant world to work for Mex¬ 
ico’s elevation? Two hundred I Two hun- 


10 


dred ministers to preach the Gospel to 16,- 
000,000 Mexicans. A parish of 80,000 
for each man. To teach the 12,000,000 
who do not know how to read and write, 
we have 1 70 schools. To convert the 
3,000,000 Indians who live entirely un¬ 
touched by civilization and our holy religion, 
we have—not one single worker. 

Facing this neglect, can we afford to criti¬ 
cize and condemn the Mexican people for 
their present reign of blood and horror? 
Should it not rather cause us to cry out to 
God for forgiveness for this awful neglect 
during these long years of opportunity? 

“Understandest what thou readest?” 
“How can I, save some man guide me?” 
May it be, when some Dr. Luke of the 
twentieth century writes the New Acts of the 
Apostles, that he shall be able to record 
that, though after long hesitancy, 10,000 
Phillips came down from the north, obeying 
the angel’s voice, and, hearing the sad wail, 
climbed up into the chariot and preached 
unto the desert traveler, Christ, 

1 hen shall the Mexican, as the Ethio¬ 
pian of old, go on his way rejoicing, the rid¬ 
dle of life explained, his burden rolled away, 
his soul transformed into the image of the 
Prince of Peace! 

Will you generously give yourselves to this 
great work? 


11 


BITS OF CONVERSATION 


HE following bits of conversation show 



how our mission work is receiving at¬ 
tention and endorsement such as would have 
been impossible in the old days before the 
Madero revolution, and that now is the time 
of all times to push our work in Mexico: 

“I am a walking advertisement for the 
Institute,” said a young man who works in 
the railroad shops. ‘‘Ever since that Sunday 
you met me on my way to the bull fight, and 
told me I was on the wrong road, I have 
practically given up going anywhere except 
to the Institute. I have not drunk a drop 
since that day, and I never tire of telling 
my friends what you have done for me, or 
urging them to come to the Institute. I am 
a different man. My family and friends all 
want to know what has changed me, and it 
is a great pleasure to tell them that it is all 
due to your work.” 

‘‘Hello, is that the People’s Institute?” 
said a voice over the telephone. ‘‘This is 
the secretary of the Anti-Re-election Club, 
and I have been instructed by our executive 
committee to see if we might have the use 
of your assembly room for a meeting of the 
club next I uesday. Also, as we have some 
important questions to discuss, and, as you 
know, are new at the business, we would like 
for you to be present and advise with us on 


12 


the matters.” This is a sample of the re¬ 
quests that come since the new political re¬ 
gime in Mexico, when for the first time the 
people have been allowed to engage in se¬ 
lecting their officials and saying something 
about the policies their nation shall pursue. 
In their ignorance of procedure in the or¬ 
ganization of political parties, it has been 
given those in charge of the People’s Insti¬ 
tute to be helpful along these lines, and to 
influence in the selection of the best candi¬ 
dates for office. In a recent public meeting 
it was stated by one of the speakers that 
there was not a man prominent in the new 
political life of the city who had not re¬ 
ceived his training for this work in the de¬ 
bating society or the night classes of the In¬ 
stitute. 

‘‘How sorry I am that I did not know 
you were in the city,” said the Governor of 
the state to the Director of the Institute, not 
long ago, when he called on him at the State 
Capitol. ‘‘There was a committee here to 
see me today from San Pedro about forming 
a night school for the workmen. I told them 
about the great work of your school in Diaz, 
and gave them your name for correspondence. 
How splendid it would have been if they 
could have talked to you personally as to 
their plans. By the way, let me present you 
to a good friend of mine who is planning to 
start some night schools for us here in Sal¬ 
tillo. He will want you to help us with 
these. The idea of the reform government 
is not only to better our public school sys- 

13 


tern, but provide instruction at night for 
adults. Your school is the first, and we will 
look to you for much help in establishing 
these new ones.” 

“Why didn’t I ever hear religion ex¬ 
plained in that common sense way before? 
Since I have begun to think for myself, I 
have never been able to accept the religion 
of the priests. For a number of years I have 
abandoned all religion, and read the works 
of the agnostics. It is going to be hard to 
come to a simple faith in God again. But I 
want to. The way you talk of prayer as a 
fellowship with God, a consultation with Him 
about our life plans, a harmonizing our will 
with that of the Infinite One, makes a deep 
appeal to me. I feel the need of such a 
power in my life. I wonder if I can ever 
get to it? I wonder if you would take the 
time to discuss these things regularly once a 
week with me and a few of my friends, en¬ 
tering into detailed explanations showing, as 
you claim, that modern science is not an 
enemy, but a friend, to religion?” Thus 
spoke a young professor of the public schools 
to us as we were endeavoring to get him to 
realize his need of Christ. Mexico is full 
of such young men, who have become dis¬ 
satisfied with Catholicism, and have turned 
to the writings of French agnostics for guid¬ 
ance. Yet by approaching them in scientific 
and philosophical terms, they can be inter¬ 
ested in the Gospel, and by patience and 
sympathy be finally won to Christ. These 
young men are now, or will be soon, the 


14 


nation’s leaders. To win the nation, they 
must be won. 

“The Governor thinks that he never heard 
of such a striking testimony of the splendid 
way in which a work is regarded as the atti¬ 
tude the mob assumed toward your building 
the other night, when they were destroying 
property. They came up the main street 
shouting against the foreigners and the peo¬ 
ple of the former political regime, and broke 
in doors and windows of a number of Span¬ 
iards, the American saloon, the Chinese ho¬ 
tel, and the home of some of the friends of 
former President Diaz, and passed your 
place three times, each time stopping there 
to hear speeches in front of the monument 
which stands in front of your building. Yet 
in spite of the fact that you were both for¬ 
eigners and Protestants, the mob did not 
make a single demonstration against you. 
That to him is wonderful. He is greatly im¬ 
pressed with the work, and says that it is 
greatly to be hoped that you may inaugurate 
it in other cities also.” Thus spoke a gen¬ 
tleman who is a close personal friend of Gov¬ 
ernor Carranza. 

“Why don’t you come to our city and es¬ 
tablish a work of that kind,” said a business, 
man whose home we were visiting the other 
day. “We have nothing here to raise the 
ideals of the people. We are all losing 
interest in the Catholic church, and we have 
nothing else to take its place. We have no 
place to take our families of evenings. We 
have no place to send our children to school. 


15 


when they finish the fifth grade. We have 
no one to lead us in the new political life we 
are entering. You have no idea what good 
you could do here with a work such as you 
have established in Diaz.” 

Said one of the principle lawyers of Sal¬ 
tillo: “We are in the greatest need of a 
work of this kind in Saltillo. We have 
many schools and churches, but we have 
nothing to get the people together on a com¬ 
mon basis like your Institute. I will help 
you in every way possible. Urge upon your 
society the starting of this work here. It will 
give more results than you can imagine.” 

Yesterday a traveling man said: ‘‘Why 
don’t you enter Torreon? It is growing 
more rapidly than any city in Me.xico, and 
it is also the most needy of any I ever saw. 
It is wide open, and it actually seems as if 
there are no elevating influences whatever. I 
believe the rich men there would take an 
active interest in the opening of a work for 
the elevation of the community life. There 
are the greatest kind of opportunities. Don’t 
fail to push this matter right away.” 

And so we could go on quoting calls that 
we are receiving constantly for the enlarge¬ 
ment of our work already established and 
the entering of new fields. What shall we 
say to these calls? The home base must 
reply. 


1 () 


LETTERS FROM PROMI¬ 
NENT MEN ABOUT THE , 
PEOPLE’S INSTITUTE 


FROM THE "BURBANK OF 
MEXICO." 

1 1 is a great satisfaction to me, and at the 
same time I believe my duty, to recom¬ 
mend the work of the People’s Institute, 
which is under the direction of Prof. S. G. 
Inman, because 1 believe it to be of great 
help in the education of our people—the 
only means by which they can obtain true 
progress. 

It has been with the greatest pleasure that 
1 have contributed to this work with my lec¬ 
tures on agriculture, and 1 shall continue on 
my sphere of action to co-operate in the en¬ 
largement of the Institute, which I do not 
doubt will find philanthropic friends who will 
help such an untiring gentleman as Prof. 
Inman in his humanitarian task, which so 
honors and benefits our people. 

Zeforino Dominguez. 


FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR OF 
THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 

It is with great pleasure that I present to 
you my good friend. Director of the People’s 
Institute, from which this city and various 

17 



others of the frontier receive great benefit, 
principally from its active propaganda of cul¬ 
ture and morality. This work has been so 
well received by our people that the absolute 
necessity is clearly seen of enlarging the build¬ 
ing in order to carry out more perfectly the 
educational work which is planned. 

1 he organization of this Institution is 
most excellent, it being the only one of its 
kind in the country, and its tendencies, its 
building, its excellent location (in front of 
the Custom House), make it most accept¬ 
able; and it has been satisfactory to me to 
observe personally the good work of Prof. 
Inman, for which cause I feel it is a real 
honor to us Mexicans who love progress to 
give our financial help for the enlargement 
of an institution so beneficent as the People’s 
Institute, A. A. BeREA. 


FROM THE “PRESIDENTE MU¬ 
NICIPAL” OF C. PORFIRIO DIAZ. 

I am honored in presenting to you most 
attentively my good friend, Senor S. G. In¬ 
man, a resident of this city, who is at the 
head of the most modern educational work 
in the republic. The direction of the Peo¬ 
ple’s Institute is in his charge, this institution 
being of an exceptional character, as it car¬ 
ries on not only special courses for working 
men, but also conferences and lectures on 
civic, industrial and moral themes, given by 
competent persons from different places; a 
public reading-room; athletic department; a 

18 



debating club, where our citizens prepare 
themselves for our democratic contests under 
the restrictions of peace and law. 

Under the transcendent importance of 
this work the Governor of the state has de¬ 
creed a certain amount of help, but on ac¬ 
count of the many financial responsibilities 
this help is not commensurate with the great 
need of this Institution. The present build¬ 
ing cost $10,000, which was raised by the 
solicitation of personal contributions by the 
Director. There is still, however, a balance 
due on the building, and to raise this and to 
enlarge the building, adding baths, a public 
clinic, some dormitories for poor young men 
who wish a higher education, etc., Senor In- 
m.an finds himself in the necessity of appeal¬ 
ing to the generosity of some of our promi¬ 
nent citizens to aid in this great work, and I 
urge such persons as desire to figure among 
the benefactors of the People’s Institute to 
aid liberally in this work, which will honor 
our country. 

A proof of the prestige of this Institution 
is that Senor Venustiano Carranza, Governor 
of the State; Senor J. de la Sa Pereyra, 
special envoy of Brazil; Senor Andres Osu- 
na, ex-Superintendent of Education in the 
State of Coahuila; Senor J. Kim Yuen, rep¬ 
resentative of the Chinese Empire; Lie. Eli- 
seo Arredondo, Secretary of the State, and 
many others who have visited the Institute, 
have expressed the highest regard for this 
work, which all good Mexicans should favor. 
Lie. Enrique del Castillo. 


FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
ASSOCIATED ADVERTISING 
CLUBS OF AMERICA, 
BOSTON. 

I want to add a personal word of Inter¬ 
est and approval for the splendid work you 
are doing. It seems to me you are decidedly 
on the right track. Our Sunday night meet¬ 
ings at Ford Hall must be precisely in spirit 
what you are attempting in Mexico. 

I wish you every success. There must be 
some way found of getting people together 
in spite of political and religious differences 
if democracy is to prevail. 

George W. Coleman. 


FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
MEXICAN COAL AND COKE 
COMPANY. NEW YORK. 

Having seen the success of your work 
among our coal miners at Las Esperanzas, 
Coahuila, and realizing from personal ac¬ 
quaintance the broad and deep Christian 
spirit and vigorous energy with which you 
are striving for the elevation of the people 
of Northern Mexico, I am greatly interested 
in the new work you have undertaken. I only 
wish that I were able to contribute more than 
I have toward this new and promising mis¬ 
sionary development. 

Jas. T. Gardiner. 


20 



